NATION : Veterans Health Care Change Urged
WASHINGTON — The Veterans Administration paid $1.7 billion in 1986 to veterans with “ordinary diseases of life” that were not caused or aggravated by military service, the General Accounting Office said today.
The GAO, a watchdog agency of Congress, noted that current law provides for compensation for disabilities that came about or got worse during the veterans’ service, regardless of their cause.
It suggested that Congress might want to change the law to require proof that the military service actually caused or aggravated the malady.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Edward J. Derwinski, in a letter published in the GAO report, said that the report correctly states the law, but he offered no comment on the suggestion for possible change.
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